40 Days 40 Acts – Lent 2019

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:29-31

We start 40 days of Lent by praying, reading and hearing together. Lent is a good time to come closer to God in setting distractions to one side and giving God our attention again. One thing to do throughout Lent is to read through a gospel and join our reading with others. This year we are focusing on the gospel of Mark. There will be selected readings as part of our 40Acts series. Read the verses and read between the verses. As we approach Easter, the readings become longer as we take in the Easter story.

Do join in.­­­

Click the button below to view the plans online or download and print at home.

We’ve put together a list of acts for us to commit to over the course of Lent. We hope it’ll be something that families can do together and children of all ages can join in. If there are some days where younger folk might not be able to join in as easily, we’ve got a wall chart where you might find acts which are more accessible.

You may want to use this list as a guide for the whole 40 days, choosing something each day that you’ll be able to complete that fits with work/commitments and ticking them off as you go along. None of these actions need to be done on a specific day. You could read through the whole thing and assign your own days to it, repeat some actions that you are more comfortable with or choose to do something instead which isn’t listed. However, there is something about Lent which suggests sacrifice and selflessness. Although you don’t have to do this in order and each day’s action can be as simple or intricate as you choose, we pray that each one will speak volumes; that it will communicate the limitless love of God to you and the people around you. We commit to a period of contemplation and reflection. Over this time, we look forward to Easter Sunday – towards the joy and glory of Easter and all that it means for us; that we are a saved and sanctified people.

A short Lent prayer which you may want to come back to over the 40 Days;